My Non-Muslim Ramadhan

Compared to the millions of Muslims around the world, I'd imagine my Eid was a little bit different to how it is traditionally celebrated.  From what I have learnt from speaking with my Muslim friends and from observing social media, many Muslims will take the day off school or work to maximise the celebrations with their families and friends. In my case, I headed to work as normal this morning, but I did so with a spring in my step. After enjoying a cupcake last night with my friend Zenab, I already had a taste for sugar when I woke up this morning. After just 5 hours sleep I grazed my way through a sausage (first time eating pork since the day before Ramadan) and a cupcake before making my morning coffee (similarly, this was my first coffee since the day before Ramadan). This would be more than enough food to start any normal day, but as I drove closer to work I became transfixed on an old vice; a large Mocha from Tim Hortons. As I pulled in to the Linwood 'Timmy ...

Today (Wednesday) was the last day of fasting this Ramadan and I have to say I am very pleased to have reached this point! It feels like such a long time since I strolled through Glenboig Park speaking to myself for an Instagram story, saying how easy my first day had been. As I write, my 29th and final Iftar has been and gone and Eid-al-Fitr has been officially announced by Glasgow Central Mosque tonight, because the new moon has been sighted. I hadn't arranged for an extravagant meal tonight - I've been keeping it simple for a week or so - but tomorrow and in to the weekend I am going to really enjoy myself in the eating department.  In Islam it is forbidden to fast during Eid and I am 100% behind this mandatory and celebratory instruction. As I discussed earlier this week, Eid is a time to celebrate indulgently and exchange gifts and blessings with your family, friends and neighbours. I will definitely be indulging without guilt, anxiety or consideration for my preferred eat...

Yesterday was the first day in the whole month of Ramadan that I managed to steal some 1-1 time with the student who inspired my Ramadan experience. 'R', as we will still call him, is quite a quiet fella. He really keeps himself to himself and doesn't often want to ask you for anything if he is in a group situation. When I was checking over the afternoon activities to see what my duties were that day, I saw that R had decided to stay with the non-sport group, which I had also been assigned to. This wasn't like him, as he'll always usually choose football when he has the choice.  I stole him for a quiet word shortly after and asked if he would like to join me to practise calisthenics instead. The group he was going to be with were all younger and far less mature than him, so I thought he'd appreciate some more man-to-man time if given the opportunity. R accepted and after lunch we headed off to Knockhill Park in Renfrew to train and hang out on the bars together....

The end of Ramadan approaches and Muslim families around the world will be starting to prepare for the huge celebration at the end; Eid-al-Fitr , the festival of breaking the fast.  In Arabic, Eid literally translates loosely as  festival . This celebration is intended to be a day of sharing goodwill with as many people you are able to (or allowed to, if you are someone who adheres to the Scottish Government's current guidance for Coronavirus and socialising with other households). Families will visit each others homes, exchange gifts and share an abundance of sugary treats; which sounds an awful lot like Christmas for us non-religious types.  From a quick internet search, it seems people from different countries will have different ways of celebrating Eid, as well as different sweet treats or important foods that they wouldn't celebrate Eid without. For example, it is suggested in many only articles that in Turkey Baklava and Turkish Delight are one of the mo...

Today has been a typical Sunday during Ramadan. I don't really have a lot to do, or whatever I have to do, it isn't enough and I suffer a frustrating demotivation to do anything else. I've launched a new fitness class ( #UnbrokenRecovery at Hogganfield Loch, Stepps ), done the big shop, spent quality time with Junior, and completed my workout; and still, I clock watch. The fasting day is now just shy of 3 hours longer than when it started in the wee hours of April 14th. I have been eating one meal a day for the past 5 days and it has been fairly comfortable as far as energy levels are concerned. Hydration too has settled in to a rhythm with 6 pints a day again now that I'm not eating as much food. However, hunger runs wild in my mind for about 10 hours a day. When I'm not working, it's a very long wait for Iftar. There is an elephant in the room that may be contributing to this; sugar. My increased sugar intake actually began the day before Ramadan b...

Throughout my research in writing about Ramadan from an athletic and sporting perspective, football has repeatedly come up. From an academic research perspective, there is far more evidence available involving football and Ramadan than any other sport. This isn't just specific to the UK either. However, researching media articles also shows football as a sport that generates the most discussion specific to Ramadan and athletes who are fasting. This makes fair sense, as football is the most popular sport in the UK. But, I had hoped to learn more about the effects of fasting in a wider range of sports during my Ramadan journey. However, I won't complain about this, because I have two very good football-specific stories to tell today. On the evening of Monday 26th April Leicester City were playing Crystal Palace in the Premier League. I'm excited to say that for the first time in British football history (as far as I can recall or seek confirmation via the Internet) an elite-l...

This week was a bit of a different week for me with regards to Ramadan and my training - mainly because I didn't do any. After receiving my injury rehabilitation and deep tissue treatment with Ashleigh at Kyniska Sports Therapy , I accepted her advice and rested for 2 full days. Resting is never my favourite thing to do! But I took my medicine and tried to see it as an opportunity to catch up on sleep and adjust to the even shorter eating/hydrating window between fasts. I actually ended up resting for 4 days! 2 of these days were not intended, but I was absolutely exhausted in the evenings after delivering my Personal Training sessions and doing bedtime for James Junior. I was also going to bed much sooner after breaking my fast and didn't set alarms to wake up for extra water. The window for eating and drinking is only 4 hours long now as the countdown to Eid begins. I simply can't eat a second meal any more and I'm feeling very comfortable energy-wise just eating a bi...

Yesterday afternoon I had a great chat with Glasgow-based PT Sophia Hassan! Sophia and I covered a range of topics specific to our usual training habits, our coaching journeys, training adaptations during Ramadan and barriers for Muslim women in the fitness industry. You can see the full conversation here on Instagram TV, but there was something that Sophia said that I wanted to discuss at greater detail ( EDIT: interview no longer available ).  As part of our discussion on her training adaptations during Ramadan, Sophia informed me that this Ramadan has probably been the hardest one she has experienced. As a result, she also stated that she has had to split her workouts in to two sections, performed at opposite ends of the day, and "go with the flow" far more when she is feeling a bit more rundown.  It was interesting to hear that Sophia has had to listen to her body far more than usual during fasting this year. Especially when this is exactly how I've felt for the past...

In my previous posts about Researching the effects of Ramadan fasting on physical performance , I had briefly covered sleep deprivation as an effect which had the potential to disrupt physical performance in athletes. 10 days later, I am truly experiencing the effects of sleep deprivation and it has definitely affected my physical performance yesterday.  I have spent the majority of Ramadan getting 5/6 hours of fairly disrupted sleep and have been coping OK. My training has not been disrupted and my general performance for all daily tasks has been fine. I've been using afternoon or early evening naps to catch up on more sleep, and it's worked well for me, until yesterday (Wednesday). With the time between Iftar and Sehri now down to just 4 hours or so, I had been feeling for a few days that eating 2 meals was becoming a painful problem. By the time I was going to sleep after force feeding a second meal and downing 6 pints of water, I started going to bed really full...

Throughout Ramadan I have been using quotes from the Quran to further my understanding of Islam and Ramadan. These quotes have also been a nice way to commemorate my experience via my Instagram account, where I post inspirational/motivational/positive quotes on a regular basis. The following post is the long story of what I posted on my Instagram feed yesterday, so sorry if you've read about some of this already! The full quote from which I created the above post is; " ...and who is more astray than him who follows his desires without guidance from Allah " - Quran, 3:185. I'd like to thanks my friend Zenith for bringing this quote to my attention. This was the overall message that was shared with me by Jasim Beg  right at the start of Ramadan during our Instagram Live chat. Jas told me that Ramadan was a time to reset your habits and behaviours and experience what it's like to be less fortunate, or have less access to the things you need. As I have learnt and expe...

It was an early start for me this morning as I was making my way up to Perth for a 930AM appointment with my new Sports Therapist, at a cool side street gym called The Body Academy . This was my first time going for a long drive during Ramadan and it was so weird to not be able to fill up my much beloved travel coffee cup, or buy a coffee on the road for the way back! I always have plenty to drink for longer road trips and the hour to and from Perth definitely made me feel thirstier than I have been during Ramadan mornings. You might be thinking, why am I driving in hour each way for a sports therapy appointment? The best therapists are always worth travelling for and Ashleigh from Kyniska Sports Therapy is no different! For someone with a sports injury background as complex as mine you only have time for the best experts you can find, and I firmly believe Ashleigh will be making a highly valuable contribution to my daily training and injury rehabilitation programme. The treatment I r...

" What's with all the dates ?"; this is a question which has popped up throughout my Ramadan experience. As you would imagine, the people asking this question would be those who do not have a scooby-doo about Islam, or Ramadan; much like myself about three weeks ago. I too had to ask my Muslim friends what the deal was with all the dates at the start of my journey.  Since then, I've been continuing my reading and researching of dates (yeah, my social life is wild right now) and this is a brief collection of what I've learned so far. Why are dates so important in Islam/Ramadan? Dates are a very important part of the diet during Ramadan, especially when breaking fast. It is suggested (in numerous online articles) that the Prophet Muhammad was known to advise his followers to eat them when breaking fast, accompanied by water. According to the Daily Sabah website the Quran mentions dates 23 times. There are many other links between the Prophet Muhammad and dates, but...

After a really miserable Friday, Saturday started off quite groggy and negative, but I didn't have time to mope about. Saturday mornings are always an early start for my favourite group class of the week, Glenboig Bootcamp . This session was especially exciting this week because it was going to be my busiest class of the year so far! 17 people joined me at Glenboig Park and I thoroughly enjoyed delivering the session. I am always more comfortable delivering fitness classes to a large audience and everyone had fun. All of my troubles from the previous day melted away and I felt so energised again. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to get outside, get fit and have fun with me yesterday! This is something I will need to remember in the next 11 days if I start to suffer another dip in energy and motivation whilst fasting. Getting outside will always improve my mood, even when I'm on my own. The rest of my Saturday involved entertaining my parents who had driven up from Lanc...

In the last post I wrote about the impact of Ramadan with regards to fatigue in athletes, and how this then affects their performances. I don't think anyone who is observing fasting this year would disagree that fatigue is one of the main challenges during Ramadan. This week, it has really hit me! Especially in the past few days.  My working week was a little bit crazier and more stressful than usual, but we did experience a 'supermoon' at the start of the week; it definitely seemed to have an impact at school! I am no expert in moons, crystals and horoscopes, but new moons always seem to bring a little more emotional unpredictability in to our house, as far as James Junior is concerned, so I am know now to pay attention to a full moon and mentally prepare for extra crazy on all fronts. Despite the supermoon energy challenging my patience from the start of the week, I didn't really suffer any negative consequences with regards to my physical training. I have really sett...